Monteregian Hills

A joint effort to recognize and protect Quebec’s Monteregian Hills

Pictured is Mont Brome in Bromont. Photo by Les Mille Lieux.

By Taylor McClure 
Townships’ Daily News Bits
CIDI 99.1 FM

The Monteregian Hills is an ecologically valuable chain of ten hills that extend from the municipality of Oka in the Laurentians and encompasses 25 municipalities up to Notre-Dame-des-Bois in the Eastern Townships, this includes Brome, Shefford, and Mégantic. 

Since the spring of 2022, the MRC of Brome-Missisquoi has been collaborating with the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM) whom recently adopted an action plan for the recognition and protection of the Monteregian Hills, which includes Bromont’s Mont Brome. 

The action plan was officially approved by the executive committee of the CMM in September, and now the MRC is committed to doing its part by incorporating the regional actions identified in such plan as a part of their own “Regional Plan for Natural Environments” and its revised “Land-Use Development Plan” to protect Mont Brome and the Monteregian Hills. 

“Each (hill) are large continuous forests that constitute cores of biodiversity amongst agricultural, rural, and urban landscapes. They are natural and structural heritage because they really dominate the landscape,” said Valérie-Anne Bachand, coordinator of land management for the MRC Brome-Missisquoi, speaking on the importance of the Monteregian Hills. 

Bachand explained that the CMM action plan is a three year plan that includes 15 steps and four objectives. 

“The first is to adapt and organize planning tools. The second is establishing and perpetuating the recognition and the protection of the hills, ensure better protection of areas of interest, and develop a sense of pride and mobilize stakeholders. Those four objectives and 15 actions are consistent with what the MRC is doing right now,” she highlighted. 

Bachand noted that the MRC is working on its “Regional Plan for Natural Environments” to ensure “sustainable development into the future by integrating conservation of natural environments into its land use planning.”

The MRC will follow the 15 steps identified by the CMM action plan to ensure its success, including taking part in a status committee to define the appropriate status of the hill,  encourage good practices and that the planning and regulation tools reduce pressure on the hills, and working with conservation committees, organizations, municipalities and all stakeholders concerned.

“Certain majors in the plan involve the collaboration of the municipalities and the MRCs concerned with the Monteregian Hills, including us in Brome-Missisquoi with Mont Brome. (…) We are invited to identify the Montérégiennes and their perimeters as important sectors comprising particular characteristics and we are invited to include these specifications in our “Regional Development Plan,” explained Bachand. “(…) This is a great opportunity to integrate the protection of Mont Brome in those planning tools.”

While important for the MRC to protect Mont Brome, Bachand emphasized that the Monteregian Hills need to be evaluated in their entirety. 

“It is also important to protect the wildlife corridor between Mont Brome and Mont Shefford and to protect all corridors in Brome-Missisquoi. We are working to protect the natural network,” she said.

For more information on the Monteregian Hills.

For more information on the MRC’s “Regional Plan for Natural Environments.”

For more information on the MRC’s “Land-Use Development Plan.”